I’ve just discovered the processing.io library, and I’m having a tough time with PWM. I’m running Processing on a Raspberry Pi Zero, and I’m wanting to interface with it’s IO pins.

The page says to “Use the SoftwareServo class below for the time being. Hardware PWM has yet to be made available by the hardware platforms we support.” Does that mean that this code doesn’t work anywhere, and that I should be working with the SoftwareServo class instead?

I’ve used the SoftwareServo class to dim a light with the following code:

Thanks so much for this! In the interim I started looking for other possible solutions and found that Arduino now (as of November 2019) has affordable nano WiFi and BLE boards which, in theory, will be better for my application. I’m going to give that a shot first and see if that works.

Another thing that I found that was a huge pain in working with the Raspberry Pi Zero was that even just typing the code in Processing was maxing out its capabilities. There was a delay with everything I typed.

Another thing that I found that was a huge pain in working with the Raspberry Pi Zero was that even just typing the code in Processing was maxing out its capabilities. There was a delay with everything I typed.

I shared that experience yesterday.

It is good to explore your options and chose the best one (SBC, microcontroller or hybrid) based on your project requirements:Raspberry Pi 3 vs Arduino Uno Rev3 < One link of many on this subject.

I typically use my Arduino for dedicated hardware and use Processing (or other hardware and software) to communicate with it (serial, ethernet, etc) if I want an HMI, GUI or data visualization; it is just so much easier for me.

I have many RPis but they are not required in most of my projects at this time.

Yes, this project started several years ago, and as I’ve discovered limitations in my ability to carry it out due to my own knowledge limits as well as hardware limits, I’ve responded by changing the scope along the way. And what’s been interesting is that over the course of the project as I stumble through and learn more, some of the hardware limitations have been eliminated. Technology marches on.